Tradition Two: does anyone have authority in A.A.?

What the Long Form says

Tradition Two is the one Tradition whose original wording survived whole into the short form (P-17, introduction). It is a single sentence: "For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience." (p. 563).

Two things in that sentence are worth noticing. The authority it names is not a person, a committee or an office. And it is authority "for our group purpose": the Tradition is about how a group decides its affairs, not about anyone's control over a member's life.

The familiar second half, "Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern" (p. 562), comes from the Long Form of Tradition Nine. There, after describing secretaries, rotating committees, intergroups and the trustees, it says "true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole" (p. 565). They have no real authority from their titles; "Universal respect is the key to their usefulness" (p. 565).

What Bill W. said in 1947

His Grapevine essay "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?" (1947) answers the question in its first line: "almost surely 'no'" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947).

His reasons: - Alcoholics can't be governed, but they can be led. Families, doctors and judges had all failed to discipline alcoholics by force. So "the only real authority to be found in A.A. is that of spiritual principle. It is never personal authority." (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). - No one is over anyone. A.A. has no fees, no dues, no rules, and "no one set in personal authority over anyone else" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). - Leaders persuade. An elected leader "can always guide by example or persuasion he can never boss" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947), or he'll be passed over at the next election. Committees "have only the authorization to serve, never to command" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947), and carry out what they believe the group wants. - Bill included. He tried to run A.A. for a few years. "Personal power always failed." (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). In A.A., he concluded, "one can be a servant only" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). - The office and trustees too. The General Office supplies information, literature and advice "if asked." The trustees are custodians: "caretakers only" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947). None of them has authority to govern A.A.

Old-timers and sponsors

The early texts don't give experience any authority. Bill's 1946 essay on membership tells how "Group Elders, now clothed with authority" (P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946) began throwing people out, and how badly it went.

In 1957 he wrote that many old-timers still thought their experience gave them "a sort of vested right" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957) to run things and pick their successors. The groups wouldn't have it. Bill called it a hard fact that the group conscience, "when properly informed of the facts and issues and principles involved" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), was often wiser than any leader. Old-timers still had something to give: when groups got into trouble, they'd turn to them for guidance. But guidance asked for is not authority.

Bill says his own "first dose" of this doctrine came in 1937, the night his New York group told him not to become a paid therapist at Towns Hospital (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). "The group was right and I was wrong" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

What the Tradition doesn't settle

The Long Form doesn't explain how a "loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience" works in practice, or how a group should reach its conscience. It names the authority and leaves the rest to experience. (For whether group conscience means a majority vote, see Is group conscience a majority vote?)

It also doesn't say the trustees and offices have no function. The Long Form of Tradition Nine says the groups authorize the trustees to handle A.A.'s overall public relations (p. 565), and Tradition Four asks groups to confer with the trustees before acting in ways that could greatly affect A.A. as a whole (p. 563). Those are services the groups delegate, not a power over them.

Read it yourself

• Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition" (pp. 561–566), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
• P-17, A.A. Tradition — How It Developed ("Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?" is near the end): https://www.aa.org/aa-tradition-how-it-developed
• Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age is sold by A.A. World Services at https://onlineliterature.aa.org
• Related: Is group conscience a majority vote? · Tradition Four: can GSO tell a group what to do?

Sources

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Our copy of A.A. Comes of Age has no printed page numbers, so it's cited by book and year.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and A.A. Comes of Age are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.